I watched him leave the bedroom and closed my eyes, feeling like I could sleep for a while now that my stomach felt half-way decent.
It wasn't much, but sleepy was better than being ready to vomit...
I woke up later, checked my Fitbit and saw that it was already six thirty. I was surprised at how long I'd been asleep. I sat up in bed and waited to see if my nausea returned, but thankfully, it was fine. I felt good, actually.
Like I could get up and face the evening.
So I did. I stood and when I didn't feel nauseated immediately, I went to the en-suite bathroom, having a pee before starting the shower. It felt good to stand under the hot spray and soon, I was lathered up and happy that I felt so good. Maybe tonight wouldn't be a total write-off as I feared. When I was finished, I dried off and stood in my bra and underwear, trying to decide what dress to wear.
Luke opened the door and saw me standing in front of my closet.
"Hey, you're up," he said and came in, closing the door behind him. "And looking ravishing with your wet hair and lacy undies."
"Oh, yeah, I bet I look really ravishing," I said with a laugh. He came up behind me and slipped his arms around my body, his hands on my belly, which was still flat, a baby-bulge currently non-existent.
"You do to me," he murmured, his mouth pressed against my neck. "Very ravishing. In fact, I can barely wait to ravish you again, once you feel better."
I turned around in his embrace and slipped my arms around his neck. "Maybe tonight, after everyone's gone. I'm hoping I'll feel good enough to maybe help you with your big problem."
He smiled and nuzzled my neck, his lips pressing against my throat. "My big problem is getting bigger by the moment..."
"Poor Luke," I murmured, my eyes closed as his hands moved over my body. "Deprived daddy stuck with a sick mommy. I suspect it'll get worse after the baby is born and we're sleep deprived with a newborn."
"But we'll both be so tired, we won't want sex," Luke said, kissing me quickly. "So it will be equally deprived."
"We'll have to make sure we hire a good babysitter to come in on a regular basis to give us a date-night once a week. Or maybe, a sleep night. We could just go to a hotel and sleep all night, and then make love in the morning a few times. That might keep us going until the baby sleeps through the night."
"That sounds like a capital idea," Luke said. "I'm holding you to it. We should hire someone right away. Maybe a retired nurse who worked in a pediatric ward who wants extra money. She could come and help us with the baby for the first six months. If we both felt secure enough with her, we could actually leave the baby and go into town for a night at the Ritz. Or maybe, we could even stay here, but in the guest wing. That way, if anything happened, we would be right here."
"That sounds great," I said and kissed Luke, glad that he was planning on staying home for the first year and working out of the beach house.
He really saw having a baby as a co-parenting thing.
"What should I wear tonight?" I asked, pointing to my closet. "I'll let you choose since it's your birthday. I won't be able to wear some of these more form-fitting dresses once I get bigger."
"The little black one you wore that first night we met," Luke said, sorting through my dresses until he found it. "It looks so good against your skin."
"Okay," I said and held it up, checking to see if it had any stains on it, for I hadn't worn it in quite a while. I slipped it on and turned my back to Luke. "Can you zip me up?"
Luke did, and the dress was actually a little loose on me. I'd lost some weight during our trip around the world, and then again after I became pregnant and started having morning sickness.
"It's looser than before," Luke said, pouting. "You've lost weight. I need to fatten you up, so you bulge out of it in that very delicious way that I love."
"I'll be fattening up real soon, as long as everything goes well," I replied.
"I hope so. I can't wait to see you with your belly filled with my baby. It'll be so sexy..."
"You are a nut," I said and laughed, slipping my arms around him.
He was as excited as I was about the pregnancy and that made my heart warm.
He took my hand and pulled me towards the bedroom door.
"Let's go downstairs and welcome the family."
So we did.
I felt so good, I hoped that perhaps soon, my nausea and fatigue would lift, and life would return to normal.